Well, iPhone applications are causing a fuss again. This time isn’t not an app for shaking a baby or snorting cocaine, though. This time it’s about gambling.

Australian parliamentarian Nick Xenophon is outraged about poker iPhone apps that allow children to play the popular card game, betting fake money. He says the apps should be banned because they teach children to gamble at an early age and could lead to gambling addiction.

Citing concerns that it would get children used to the idea of playing poker for money, he said that “kids can become poker machine experts years before they are legally allowed to set eyes on a real machine.” In Australia, you must be at least 18 years of age to place a bet in any of their casinos.

The iPhone apps addressed by Xenophon are applications that have been endorsed by some of the big-name online casino companies. Though the games are free and you only gamble with play money, Xenophon worries that it could develop a pattern and teach kids that playing poker is a good way to make money. He said that the iPhone apps are “a training application for kids to lose real money when they turn eighteen.” Most of the apps do not have age restrictions.

Though he would like to ban them outright, Xenophon acknowledges that removing access to them in the country may not be possible. As a more realistic goal, he intends to push for legislation that would make it illegal to provide the iPhone gambling apps to children.

Now that they’re done with apartheid, South Africa has turned their attention to the growing online gambling industry. Online casinos are seeing a surge of popularity amongst South Africans and many are pushing to regulate the industry.

Peter Collins, Executive Director of the National Responsible Gambling Programme said, “In South Africa it is currently estimated that about a quarter of a million people regularly gamble online. Naturally it is easier to get a poker game going online, than with people in person.”

Though online gambling is still illegal in South Africa, that isn’t stopping players from logging on as there is generally no enforcement of the laws already in place. The primary concern for the government is the growing number of underage gamblers. The hope is that by passing regulatory laws and making it a legal activity, the laws would be easier to enforce and the number of underage players would decrease.

Keeping the kids away from poker games isn’t the only reason lawmakers are eager to put regulations in place. The South African government stands to make an estimated 20 Billion Rand in revenues from the online gambling industry. “Rather than making it illegal and sending it underground, we could implement a regulated system and the South African Government along with casinos would benefit nicely.”